Seeing Is Believing
Apr 11, 2014
Yesterday I was talking about knowledge and belief and the difference between the two, and I didn't get to say everything I wanted to say. This is a foundational element of any useful semantic map, so I'll probably camp out here for another day or two.
The poster child for this concept in Western culture is Thomas, the disciple of Jesus, sometimes known affectionately as "Doubting Thomas". Most folks know the story: Thomas was out doing something else when Jesus made his first appearance to the disciples as a group, so he missed it. He rejoins the group and is told the most fantastic story ever heard, unprecedented in the history of the world, that a guy he knew that was tortured and executed and buried has been seen walking around. Preposterous. Retarded. No way.
So is it really that outlandish that Thomas's reaction was, basically, "I'll believe it when I see it"?
Think about what your reaction would be if one friend of yours told you another friend had just won the lottery and is now a multi-millionaire. Wouldn't you be a little weirded out? Wouldn't you want to check with that person to verify that story? How much more so if you heard that someone you knew that had just passed away, whose funeral you attended, was back in town?
And that's a totally reasonable response. In fact, it's a foundational principle of Western/Anglo culture, and every day in courtrooms around the world witnesses are prevented from talking about stories they heard from someone else (so-called "hearsay") and restricted to testifying to what they actually saw and heard. When it comes to deciding what to think about anything important, rumors and hearsay and second-hand stories just don't cut it. We need evidence.
Or at least we should. More tomorrow next month. [Note: Sorry, "tomorrow" turned into "mañana" turned into "I'll get to it when I get to it". No more posts in April. (And I was off to such a good start, too....)]
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